The planned expansion of the University of Kentucky's Center for Applied Energy Research Laboratory (CAER) will significantly expand the center's research capabilities with a new 36,000-square-foot (3,344-square-meter) building dedicated to research in the biomass and biofuels industries, advanced distributed power generation and storage, and technologies for electric vehicles.

Established 30 years ago, the CAER is a multidisciplinary research center focusing on energy related industries particularly important to the state of Kentucky although the research has broad application. In addition to wide ranging research program in support of the coal and electric power industries, the center has expanded over time to address issues in carbon capture and management, electrochemical energy storage, biomass energy and biofuels, and other renewable energy systems such as photovoltaic and thermoelectric power.

The new facility will include labs for process development, prototype manufacturing and testing as well as applied research on batteries, capacitors, solar energy materials and biofuels. A portion of the new facility will be equipped specifically for capacitor and battery manufacturing research. The Kentucky Biofuels Laboratory, an analytical laboratory managed as an open access user facility, will also be located within the new expansion.